brickclubfandomcom-20200213-history
1.5.11-Pilferingapples
Brick!club Les Miserables 1.5.11 Christus Nos Liberavit or, literally translated: Pilf Has No Idea What This Title Means. In which Hugo actually lets some suffering go by in LESS THAN REAL TIME and that is very good because it’s already awful! Gad, I love this chapter though. I mean it’s painful to read, but it’s one of the (many many) parts of the book that hurts because it’s still so largely true. No, prostitution doesn’t weight ONLY on women, but it does weigh on women disproportionately. And the idea that prostitution, which Fantine ‘freely’ enters to save her child’s life, is a form of slavery; that starvation and desperation can count for just as much as more literal chains in tying a person down, is a pretty important concept. People joke about wage slavery, but really, there are a LOT of jobs that pay just enough to survive and not enough to leave, or ruin a person for other work, or or or, and it all comes down to being pinned down for lack of money (and does someone with better words and wisdom than me want to talk about how much of Fantine’s misery here is caused by the slashing of her wages made possible by prison labor, a more direct form of slavery, with people made to work in actual chains? And how that still goes on? I hope so, because it’s really important.) So Fantine’s trapped. But at least things can’t get worse! She’s gone numb from trauma, so nothing can hurt her, hooray! Next chapter: THINGS GET WORSE. Fantine, honey, you have the WORST luck with men. Commentary Sarah1281 There’s something rather unsettling about the thought that even when prisoners are supposedly paying off their debt to society and being productive, their ridiculously underpaid labor can still ruin lives through price slashing. I’ll bet Fantine’s resentment of convicts just rose though it’s REALLY not their fault. Espetrell I don’t have anything to add to this analysis, but I do know what the title means! Gascon-en-exile I’m in the middle of writing my last paper of the semester (yay!), but I can take a break to…do more writing. What an exciting life I lead. Others have already translated the title, but I’m left wondering why Hugo went with Latin when that phrase doesn’t appear anywhere in the Bible or Catholic tradition or liturgy that I know of. It underscores the “prostitute = slave” and “God is Big Brother but in a good way” themes of the chapter, but other than that I’m not seeing why this chapter is so special. I should probably look through all the chapters to come and see if there are others in Latin, but I’m too lazy busy at the moment. Is it silly that I had to do a double take when I read that “''on dit que l’esclavage a disparu de la civilisation européenne,” knowing that Les Mis was published in 1862 when the South still had slaves? I guess he’s talking about civilization physically on the European continent, though that’s so narrow-minded and essentialist to assume that only people who live in Europe count as Europeans. I ''demand that the racist oppression perpetrated by my direct ancestors be accurately accounted for as European and French and most definitely not American! Wow, I think that was the most screwed up imitation of a social justice activist ever imaginable. Go me… Returning to the chapter itself, it’s remarkable to see Hugo turn the fallen woman archetype on its head by chronicling the change in Fantine’s demeanor. She’s only cold and morbid because life has dropped her at the bottom of the heap, not because she was inherently morally flawed and doomed to fall. I’ve already said it once before (about Valjean I think?), but Hugo really likes to let us know he’s on the nurture side of the “nature vs. nurture” argument. Doeskin-pantaloons (reply to Gascon-en-exile) From what I can gather - and I don’t have a Latin translation of the Bible, so I’m not a hundred percent sure - the chapter title comes from Galatians 5:1 (bold words are the actual title): For freedom Christ has set us free; stand fast therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. So I guess we can all have a bit of an angst party about that. Kalevala-sage I can’t shed any light on the financial/political injustice at work here, plus I’m already late (have I mentioned I’ve started work on two other productions? And it’s exams? And one’s in tech right now and I’m designing and I seem to have lost an entire universe of data? And speaking of things I’ve lost, there’s also my figurative shit, but that’s personal and I’ll probably live), so here’s a smattering of bricky abstractions. Aside from creating a poignant image, that Fantine “''est devenue marbre en devenant boue'',” or “became marble in becoming dust,” reiterates more or less what I attempted to express yesterday: that the sacrifices she makes for the sake of idealism have only dimmed her future and illuminated her past as the closest to her dream she will ever come. …We also know who else attained a “marble” state through his self-actualization and physical (if not sexual) perfection, but I’m not certain where to go with that train of thought… It may be of interest to point out the French word for “destitution” is “''dénûment'',” sharing an etymological ancestry with “''nu''" and "dénudé"—which both mean "naked." Intellectually, there is a significant comparison to make in regards to nakedness and abjection; one does nevertheless wonder how the word surfaced developmentally, especially when considering the English mot-ennemi “''dénouement'',” literally “unknotting,” the guiding principle behind many a post-climactic plot. I’ll save my “prostitution is a women’s problem” and associated gender diatribe for tomorrow/later today, because indignance over “neuter” paralleling “parasite” will surely provide an impetus to write (…though it’s potentially an interesting foil to Enjolras’s vir). Pilferingapples (reply to Kalevala-sage) *jaw dropping over EVEN MORE fuel for my Fantine and Enjolras compare/contrast fire. I know EXACTLY where this train of thought is going but WILL NEVER HAVE ENOUGH TIME TO WRITE ALL OF THIS ARGH. I’m looking forward to your diatribe, though!:D You write wonderful diatribes.